Mitt Romney vs. Rick Santorum was the heavyweight bout in Illinois on Tuesday night, but one of the undercards was much more interesting. Democratic redistricting forced Republicans into their first intra-party primary skirmish of 2012, a bout that laid bare divisions between the GOP’s past and future.
eric cantor
Hurricane Politics
Hurricane Irene wreaked billions of dollars in damage, inundated cities and towns and killed at least 35. For hundreds of thousands more, it was either a life-changing calamity or a close call. But for politicians, it was also a chance to showcase leadership and promote their vision of government in a moment of peril. President Obama …
Eric Cantor Shoots Back: Still No Compromise on Taxes
In a memo to his House Republican caucus released after Obama spoke on Monday afternoon, Majority Leader Eric Cantor doubled down on his insistence that there be no tax increases included in the next round of deficit negotiations. Though this position ignores the fact that taxes are set to go up automatically in 2013 if Congress does not …
Don’t Be Distracted: The Top Four Red Herrings of the Debt Debate
The day-to-day of Washington political debate is often little more than misdirection. All sides craft messages aimed at attracting the sympathies of select groups of voters, even if the soundbites have little or nothing to do with what is actually happening. These red herrings make headlines, but they poorly reflect policy or political …
Still Stalled: Debt Talks Splinter as Negotiators Go Their Own Ways
Washington’s debt-ceiling talks have entered a new and desperate phase. With two weeks to go until the U.S. begins to cut government services to avoid defaulting on its credit obligations, negotiators are further apart on a plan …
With Debt Talks Stalled, Democrats Try to Divide and Conquer the GOP
A day after a testy exchange between Barack Obama and Eric Cantor capped debt-limit negotiations at the White House, Democrats launched a coordinated attack against the House Majority Leader, portraying him as a primary obstacle …
Is Obama Playing Politics With His Debt-Limit Veto Threat?
President Obama has managed to claim the moral high ground in his battle with Republicans over raising the debt ceiling by appearing to put good fiscal policy ahead of short-term political considerations. By putting a bigger …
Obama vs. Cantor: Tempers Flare as Debt-Ceiling Negotiations Take a Dramatic Turn
President Obama and House majority leader Eric Cantor engaged in a high-stakes test of wills during Wednesday’s debt-ceiling negotiations at the White House, trading dramatic ultimatums in the most intense round of talks yet. …
Debt Ceiling Negotiators’ Task: Getting Cantor to Deal
Updated
There’s currently a lot of movement on the chess board of Washington’s debt ceiling game, and much of that action has one goal: returning the pieces back to their original positions — the king next to the queen and the pawns all in a row.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s startling proposition on Tuesday that …
Debt-Limit Divide Deepens as Talks Approach the Brink
As the U.S. hurtles toward a potential debt-limit default that would shake the fragile economy, the chasm between the two parties widened on Tuesday, as Republican opposition to tax increases calcified and Democrats bristled at …
Eric Cantor, the GOP’s Hard-Line Lieutenant, Sways Debt Talks
At his press conference on Monday, President Obama made clear that his frustration with House Republicans’ intransigence in negotiations to raise the federal borrowing limit did not extend to their leader. “I think Speaker …
Cantor in a Box
House Speaker John Boehner assigned his No. 2, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, to hammer out a deficit reduction package to be attached to raising the debt ceiling with Vice President Joe Biden two months ago. It was a calculated move: whatever the end product was, Cantor had a stake in it and therefore had to support it in front of …
Debt-Ceiling Kabuki
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and No. 2 Senate Republican Jon Kyl want you to know they are taking a principled stand. They are against raising taxes. They will not recommend to their conferences that taxes be raised. They …
